Category Archives: Uncategorized

What is democracy?

A definition I’ve come across several times, from H.L. Mencken:

Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.

The level of tomfoolery I’m seeing from several presidential candidates makes me suspect that we will indeed be getting it good and hard.

Source: Britannica Online

Election 2010: The day before the Wisconsin primaries

Here are a few people who won’t get my vote this November.

  • U.S. Representative Steven Kagen, M.D.: In your ads, Dr. Kagen, you speak out on one hand against wasteful government spending; on the other, you vigorously participated in ramming through a health care bill that we can’t afford.
  • U.S. Senator Russ Feingold: See above; and, even though you’ve stopped running misleading ads about your opponent, they’ve left a bad taste in my mouth.
  • Tom Barrett and Scott Walker, candidates for Governor of Wisconsin: Between the two of you (and your “friends”) running negative campaigns – Barrett on Walker, and Walker on Barrett and fellow candidate Mark Neumann – it doesn’t matter what your qualifications might have been. It doesn’t even matter if you stop the negative campaigns tomorrow.

To the rest of the candidates, be forewarned: If I see any more deliberate misdirection or attack ads from any candidate, I’m liable to vote for someone else that I don’t know and whose political views I would otherwise utterly disagree with. I don’t think I’m alone.